[2] Ned Rifle stars Liam Aiken as the title character, reprising his role from the other two films, as well as Aubrey Plaza, Parker Posey, James Urbaniak, and Thomas Jay Ryan.

On visiting his mother, Fay, who is serving a life sentence for terrorism, she cannot tell him her husband's whereabouts and suggests he contacts her brother Simon, who is a writer in New York.

In fact, Henry shams madness in order to enjoy a quiet life among good books (as Fay does too, though not by choice).

Ned abducts his willing father, planning to shoot him in open country, but discovers that Susan has found his revolver and removed its ammunition.

Like Henry Fool (1997) and Fay Grim (2006), Ned Rifle was directed, written, co-produced and composed by Hal Hartley.

While promoting Fay Grim in 2007, Hartley mentioned the possibility for a third film, hinting that Aiken's character Ned would be the story's focus.

[7] Hartley said the structure of Ned Rifle was heavily influenced by his 2011 short film Meanwhile, which chronicles a man "as he goes from one situation to the next".

[11] On November 6, 2013, Hartley launched a fundraising campaign to produce the film through Kickstarter, seeking a total of $384,000 and offering various incentives to those who donated $1 or more.

[2] Liam Aiken, Parker Posey, James Urbaniak, and Thomas Jay Ryan reprise their roles from the first two films.

In addition, Martin Donovan, Karen Sillas, Robert John Burke, and Bill Sage had worked with Hartley on his other previous films.

[24] The film's US debut premiered at SXSW in Austin, Texas on March 13, 2015[25] and was available for viewing on demand on Hartley's official website beginning on April 1, 2015.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Ned Rifle serves as a satisfying conclusion to Hal Hartley's "Henry Fool" trilogy - and one of the strongest late-period works from a distinguished filmography.

"[28] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".